Darryl Baker 🌎

Longhorn / Travel / Craft Beer / Music

[God @TheTweetOfGod]

Everything, everything, EVERYTHING he touches dies. #USABEL #USMNT

[Taylor Twellman @TaylorTwellman]

And we got absolute 🦗 from the UEFA members when it came to Ronaldo and his disappearing 2 game ban before the tournament. Their silence spoke volumes about who and what they represent.

The process and announcement from FIFA was not good at all. Weak at best but did the right result happen?! That’s my internal debate.

[EducatëdHillbilly™ @RobProvince]

🇪🇺… Stepping on a players ankle is always a red card.

🇺🇸… You literally gave a yellow card to Messi for the exact same thing.

🇪🇺… A red card always disqualifies you from play.

🇺🇸… You literally suspended several red cards right before the World Cup so the most popular player could participate.

🇪🇺… No a red card during the World Cup has always means suspension from the next game.

🇺🇸… You literally suspended a red card in 1962 for Chile’s best player.

[The Heretical Liberal 🇨🇦 @Rob_ThaBuilder]

Regardless of where you stand on Balogun-Gate, the whole reaction to both sides highlights some very key differences in the American vs European mindset.

In the American mind, "getting it right" is the most important thing. Thats how justice is served, is by getting to the correct result based on the play on the field.

The European mind is different though. They have an instinct towards bureaucracy and are obsessed with process. The Process must be respected. Respecting process is more important than the specifics of what happened on the field.

And thats why you get this wild take thats fairly common where a Euro will say something like "He didnt deserve the red card, but once it was given it cannot be overturned!".

To the American mind, justice is served by getting the call right, regardless of process. To the European mind, justice is served by respecting process, regardless of the result.

Its a fascinating look into the psyche of both, and if I'm permitted a little armchair psychoanalysis of both groups, id say the reason lies in their history. The Europeans spent centuries as the peasant class of Europe, essentially being forced to accept whatever shit the aristocracy piled up on them. There was no "appeals" process, they took what they had too, because there was no other option. In this environment, a certain "acceptance of one's fate" or immunity to overt injustice likely seeped into the national psyches. No one had success by "fighting the power", the power imbalance was simply too great. What eventually saved them though, was process. Rules-based orders were the only thing that gave them a semblance of power vs the aristorcracies of their upper classes. And so they came to revere Process as the Ultimate Good and working OUTSIDE process as the Ultimate Evil.

The Americans, on the other hand, never developed their national psyche in the world of Kings and Aristocrats. Class was far less rigid in the new world, and risk-taking WAS highly rewarded there. "Fighting the power" to "do what was right" WAS greatly rewarded during the American Revolution when a few great men "fought the power" and were gifted with what would become the most powerful, prosperous country on Earth. And so a certain disdain against "process" took hold, a general feeling that "process" was only as good as long as it provided fair and just outcomes. As opposed to the European model, where "process " was the only thing that had given them anything close TO "fair and just outcomes".

So in that context, the massive gap between both sides makes sense

Or maybe this is all nonsense and its just anti-American, pro-Euro tribalism, who knows 🤷🏼‍♂️

[Tom - USMNT🇺🇸 @USMNT_2026]

Has anyone found UEFA’s statement on Ronaldo being allowed to play in the World Cup after his 3 game suspension got delayed? 🦗🦗🦗

[claybraham lincoln @ClayLaSoul]

Exactly two years ago, UEFA suspended a one-game ban on Jude Bellingham during their literal last tournament. 🤷‍♂️

[Patrick @PhillyPMC]

So the USSF followed the appropriate protocols to appeal the red card. And the 18 person committee determined what we have acknowledged all along: the red card was improperly given, and Balogun should play. This is the same process that has been used to overturn the suspension of 4 other players in this World Cup. I fail to see the issue here.

[Brendan Darr @BrendanDarr]

Here’s the thing, the entire argument falls apart when they call it unprecedented and a UEFA member, Portugal, benefited from the same thing already this tournament as Ronaldo had two games of his suspension deferred.

[Noam Blum @neontaster]

It always amuses me when sports fans are like "yes, you should keep that obviously bad decision in place even though everyone knows it was a bullshit call because that's the way we've always done things!"

[Adam Crafton @AdamCrafton_]

Quansah red card (for sure right decision) makes US red card ban suspension even more confusing. If that was about misapplied VAR protocol (use of still images), did we not just see the same again?

[Nathan Carroll @Nathan_26_]

One of my favorite World Cup revelations is Europeans not knowing who Alaska belongs to

[E.B. Beaumont @CoachBeaumont]

1) Balogun is the fifth (5th) player in this WC to have a red card ban adjusted in some way to allow them to play.

2) Review of red cards is a constant in every professional soccer league and it's far from unprecedented to have the full penalty from a dodgy one removed. It's the norm for such decisions not to be final and unreviewable.

[Jonathan Greenberg @JGreenbergSez]

A huge cultural difference between international soccer and American sports cultures. Americans are used to our athletes saying they prefer to beat an opponent at full strength. International soccer culture - the same culture that produces players pretending to be injured - is fine whinging about a guy being suspended for something he didn’t even do to their team.

[Dave Johnson @davejsports]

I know the rules. When VAR called the head referee over to the monitor, they didn't just use slow motion to show where Balogun's foot landed. They isolated the contact on a slow-motion loop and showed still frames. By looking primarily at slow motion to judge the force of the challenge, the referee violated the core spirit of the rule. Slow motion strips away momentum, makes completely accidental slips look highly calculated, and makes routine contact look incredibly violent. That is exactly why the protocol warns against using it to measure intensity—and why the decision was ultimately viewed as a failure of the system

[World Cup 2026 @ofootball__]

Thank You VOZINHA 🫡

[Awful Announcing @awfulannouncing]

Andrés Cantor has the Telemundo call of Sidny Lopes Cabral's unbelievable equalizer for Cape Verde. ⚽️💥🎙️ #WorldCup

[FOX Sports @FOXSports]

Sidny Lopes Cabral with an ABSOLUTE GOLAZO to bring Cape Verde level with Argentina in extra time 😱

INCREDIBLE SCENES

[ESPN @espn]

ARGENTINA SURVIVES IN EXTRA TIME TO ADVANCE TO THE ROUND OF 16 ‼️

An incredible fight from Cape Verde in defeat 👏

[Darryl Baker 🌎 @darrylabaker]

Thank You Cape Verde! Awesome World Cup!

[LASIK.com @LASIKdotcom]

Still offering all @FIFAWorldCup refs free LASIK...